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Chef Jean-Georges Vongerichten has established an international restaurant empire. His hospitality group has opened over 60 fine dining establishments, bistros, and hotel ventures across 12 countries worldwide during its tenure. Although Chef Jean-Georges is a master of fine French cooking, he’s also built life long habits around nutritional wellbeing. After weaving a massive influence over New York’s fine dining scene, which Mario Batali once described as “America’s answer to nouvelle cuisine,” Vongerichten wrote the 1990 book Simple Cuisine, where he shared his cooking techniques with the world. At the 2nd annual Men’s Health Lab, Vongerichten opened up about his relationship with food and health.
He participated in a frank and intimate conversation at Hearst Tower in New York City about the future of healthy cuisine and was joined by son Cedric Vongerichten (a restauranteur and founder as well) and Interventional Cardiologist and Quality Officer of Cardiac Catheterization at NYU Langone Health Louai Razzouk, MD, MPH. The event gathered the foremost experts in health, journalists, and notable men in their various fields to break ground on conversations about leading longer and more fulfilled lives.
Esquire’s executive editor, Madison Vain, interviewed Chef Jean-Georges Vongerichten about where his personal focus on health and wellness began. Born in Alsace, France, Vongerichten discovered his lifelong passion for food while following his grandmother in the kitchen. “[Her cooking] was vegetable-forward food, because meat was expensive,” Vongerichten said. “In Alsace, there’s no ocean. So there was lots of pork, lots of beef, lots of meat, but there it was always a small portion of protein on the large portion of vegetables. Lots of sauerkraut, lots of potatoes, and things like that. All my life, I was a vegetable-forward person.”
This honed his instinct for finding fresh produce and vegetables. Vongerichten revealed that he loves visiting Union Square Greenmarket to do his sourcing. “That’s where i get all my product,” he said. “It’s all about sourcing, finding the best ingredients.” Nowadays diners are much more health conscious when they go out to eat. This was something Vongerichten was aware of and wanted to cater to. “I had to change a little bit my philosophy of cooking, and really bring home cooking to the table.” Vongerichten’s ABC Kitchen and abcV focuses on organic ingredients, local sourcing and fresh simple cooking, but elevated enough to offer patrons a luxurious experience.
Vongerichten suggests that chefs expand their palettes in order to sustain healthy cooking habits without sacrificing taste. “I went to Asia for 5 years, so I learned about a lot of spices,” said Vongerichten. “Today, I cannot cook without ginger, chilis, lemongrass, turmeric, so it’s been part of my DNA, [which transferred to] abcV, for example, which is vegan. My son Cedric and his wife, who is Indonesian, they have an Indonesian French restaurant called Wayan.”
Wayan offers modern French flair on Indonesian flavors with a focus on fresh seafood. Vongerichten and his son Cedric emphasize balance at their successful restaurant ventures, something that’s led them to a long spanning career in cooking and opening restaurants. “I try to keep it simple for the guests,” Cedric Vongerichten said. “People are coming to the restaurant for an experience and a concept, and if we can add [nutritional] awareness, that is the whole package.”
Vongerichten always ensures that their menus are seasonally centered, so that every ingredient is at its most nutrient dense. “Having balanced dishes, adding spices, chilis, turmeric, those are a lot of ingredients from Indonesia that are good for you and are anti-inflammatory.” They fuse diverse ingredients and local produce to make sure their diners experience the kind of hospitality and delicious cuisine they look for at Jean-Georges establishments. The world renowned chefs share these tips and get fact-backed information from NYU Langone’s Dr. Louai Razzouk in the full interview avaialble here.
The 2nd annual Men’s Health Lab was hosted by Hearst Magazines in partnership with NYU Langone Health and presented by Boehringer Ingelheim and Gilead, with special thanks to Ensure Max Protein.
Dining and Cooking